Director: John Schultz
Starring: Carter Jenkins, Austin Robert Butler and Ashley Tisdale
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Runtime: 86 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2011

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Rating notes: Mild violence and themes

After spending perhaps too much time establishing the Pearson family, with 15 year old Tom being bullied for because he is intelligent and his trying to show that he is not, and 17 year old Bethany doting on dumb hunk, Rick, we go off on a fishing holiday with them where they are joined by their uncle and cousins who tend to dominate. So, the scene is set.

Noises upstairs reveal four aliens (tiny in size but large in aggressive attitudes, except for a cute little fellow who is the brains of the group). Plenty of comedy and slapstick as the kids pursue the aliens and the aliens attack the kids. The aliens can’t take possession of kids but can robotise adults with a machine (which the kids find and use to their advantage, especially robotising Rick). The kids keep this all a secret from their parents and have to devise different ways of covering up, especially with the local sheriff intervening.

Nothing particularly startling but it is an undemanding holiday show that should keep undiscriminating children amused for an hour and a half. Parents who liked the TV series, Everybody Loves Raymond, should pop in later in the film to see Doris Roberts (Raymond’s mother) play grandmother who is taken over and is able to do all kinds of martial arts techniques, leaps and kicks, in battling Rick. Robert Hoffman deserves an acknowledgement for his being a good sport in portraying Rick as a loathsome two-timing jock and allowing himself to spend a lot of time as absolutely inane because the kids have robotised him!